Santa for a day, It was amazing!!

I think we all know that Santa Claus is far from real. Santa Claus is a fictional character who is believed to bring gifts for children. Young children all over the world believe in the existence of Santa Claus, wishing and hoping for the presents he shall bring for them under the Christmas tree. In reality it is their Parents that play the role of Santa, buying goodies that the children want.

But what about the children who don’t have parents, or the children that are under privileged? Who is their Santa Claus? Forget even Santa Claus, who makes their Christmas special by gifting them a little something from the heart. Well, the answer is you! You can be their Santa Claus. You can be the person to bring them joy and happiness during this time of the year. And that is exactly what some senior students within my school decided to do on the 19th of December.

The place we went to is called Homeless of Nairobi and is basically a very small organization that we want to help grow. This organization picks up street children and gives them hope for a brighter future. We bought a couple of gifts such as bubbles, puzzles, footballs and loom bands, the gifts were given according to the ages of the children. The gift were in fact bought with some funds we had collected from the students within our school. We also requested the students to bring dry food items such as: flour, rice, sugar e.t.c, which the students brought with great enthusiasm. We donated this too.

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Sometimes we really take for granted the things that we are given in our day to day life. This includes things such as our homes, education, water, family, friends and other items that we disregard because we use them often and daily.

During our visit the children performed a small skit for us in Swahili. Through the skit they told us about the difficulties that they faced when they lived on the streets. The thing that caught my attention the most was how everyone used to treat them. The police called them a nuisance, the city council called them thieves and the general public just wanted to get rid of them by any means possible; whilst all they were trying to do was to acquire some sort of food to keep them alive and going.

Some of the children had been abandoned by their parent/s whilst others were sent out by their families to beg. The children included kids as young as the age of 3. Whose hopes, dreams and aspirations were put on hold because of the state of the life they led. However, thanks to the organization these dreams will hopefully someday become a reality.

All the children want to someday be part of a profession that they felt suits them; I even met a boy by the name of Josphat who wants to be a journalist someday. And, because of this I had a really good conversation with him. He could also rap and he wrote and recited stories to the rest of the children. He recited one for me too 🙂 (I will post it in the short story section).

The other children wanted to be doctors, teachers, nurses’ etc.; in fact they had a wall where they put up all their ambitions and dreams, which they were striving to achieve.

The wall of hope, dreams and ambitions

Josphat and I

The fact that I could be part of somehow continuing to give them that hope that they need to carry on, made my heart swell will happiness. Seeing the smiles and joy that we brought to the children made me so happy. When thanking us one of them told us – “Everyone forgets us, not only during this time of the year” and they continued by saying how they were glad that we hadn’t forgotten them. This made me get too emotional and I had tears in my eyes that threatened to spill.

This visit was eye opening and I felt so content at the end of the day. And that is why dear reader I urge you all to do something similar next Christmas. Give to the less fortunate in any way that you can. I promise you will not regret it at all, in fact you will come out of the experience a better person.

So next year guys, be a Santa!

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credits for most photos: My friend called Wambui.

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I know I haven’t posted in a while but like I said this is my final year of high school and its too hectic. But, I felt this post was very important and just had to be shared.